I am happy to say that Milarepa Center is doing well after a few years of financial challenges. We have further to go, but we are making huge strides every day!

I was appointed as center director in November 2017, and since then I have of course been following the advice given to the center by our dearest, most precious spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, for Milarepa Center to provide space for students to engage in retreat, and to offer teaching programs when possible.

With its 275 acres of pristine forest, rolling meadows, and multiple cabins on the land, Milarepa Center offers students an opportunity to conduct solitary retreat in a serene and blessed environment with no distractions.

This past year we have hosted many students from all over for private retreat, offered several public programs and retreats, upgraded a retreat cabin with a Merit Box award, and are now preparing for the arrival of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche in August! So many wonderful blessings and causes being created for Milarepa Center and the teachings to flourish, I rejoice!

Losar card featuring Milarepa, created by LPP student Raven Jones for the Year of the Earth Pig 2019

Due to feeling a strong connection with Jetsun Milarepa, Milarepa Center has also been receiving many letters this past year from inmates in prisons all over the United States. Milarepa Center answers letters when we can and also puts inmates in contact with the Liberation Prison Project, so that they may receive additional books and study materials.

An extra bonus for the center has been the Losar (Tibetan New Year) cards we have received for the last two years created and sent to us by Raven Jones, the first person to fully complete the FPMT Masters Program while being incarcerated. In his letters to us, Raven has expressed his overwhelming respect for Jetsun Milarepa as a personal role model as well as making beautiful and most kind wishes for the center to grow and have continued success. Many inmates feel a strong connection to Milarepa as role model and as an example of the possibility of total transformation reaching all the way up to enlightenment. The letters are such a beautiful and humbling reminder of the Buddha-nature within us all.

Phillipa Rutherford, center director, organizing games at the thukpa picnic on the lawn outside of Geshe Jampa Tharchin’s house at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre, Upper Moutere, New Zealand, February 2019. Photo by Sarah Brooks, spiritual program assistant.

Chandrakirti Meditation Centre, an FPMT center in Upper Moutere, New Zealand, celebrated Losar in February 2019 with three days of activities: thukpa night at their FPMT resident teacher Geshe Jampa Tharchin’s house at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre on February 3; Guru puja with tsog, breakfast, a potluck lunch, and hanging prayer flags at the center on February 5; and prayers, a picnic, and hanging prayer flags at nearby retreat property Wish Fulfilling Land on February 9. Sarah Brooks, spiritual program assistant shares the story.

The Chandrakirti family spent several days welcoming in the Year of the Earth Pig. We started the traditional Tibetan way—a couple of days before Losar—with thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup) and chubas (Tibetan dress). The delicious homemade vegetarian thukpa was prepared by volunteers and cooked by Ven. Youdon, who lives at the center.

Volunteers making thukpa in the outdoor eating area at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre, Upper Moutere, New Zealand, February 2019. Photo by Sarah Brooks, spiritual program assistant.

Geshe Jampa Tharchin, our resident teacher, told the story of why thukpa is considered a very friendly food. Lama Atisha was served thukpa when he first arrived in Tibet. When Lama Atisha asked what the food was called, they told Lama Atisha the literal meaning of “thukpa”—“meeting of two”—which means two people meeting again after having met in previous lives. Lama Atisha said the meaning of the name was very good!

We also played traditional Tibetan games around the table; each person chose a piece of paper and followed the instructions—from singing a song to telling their life story. For some reason, when we all embarrass ourselves in front of each other we feel even more like family!

During dessert and socializing two of the members played ukulele and sang indigenous Māori songs, including a special song for Geshe Tharchin’s long and happy life.

The day before Losar we completed our ten-day retreat on emptiness, and also prepared for the big day.

Losar itself started auspiciously with an extensive Guru Puja with tsog. Geshe Tharchin brought special Tibetan substances, including tsampa (roasted, ground barley). These substances were passed around for everyone to offer and make special wishes for the New Year.

Then everyone enjoyed a bountiful community lunch cooked by very kind volunteers. To celebrate the life of our most precious Lama Thubten Yeshe, Paul Kelly, a student of Lama Yeshe’s who had met Lama, read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s tribute to his guru Lama Yeshe aloud to us from the 1984 issue of Wisdom magazine.

In the afternoon, Chandrakirti Centre volunteers hung new prayer flags all around. This created an engineering challenge, resolved with creative solutions that allowed us to get high up in the trees. All the activities were joyous and harmonious, which created an excellent way to start the year.

Three days after Losar, everyone was invited to a picnic at the Wish Fulfilling Land, a joint project of FPMT and Chandrakirti Centre providing isolated long-term retreat cabins for meditators who want to realize the lamrim.

Geshe Jampa Tharchin, resident teacher, with a cell phone on his head, making everyone laugh, Wish Fulfilling Land, South Upper Moutere, New Zealand, February 2019. Photo by Sarah Brooks, spiritual program assistant.

Geshe Tharchin led the group in prayers on the site, and we shared a meal and laughter together. Geshe Tharchin said the best thing we can do is to make people’s minds happy, so relax and enjoy!

To make sure we made the most of each other’s company, everyone agreed to put their cell phones into the middle of the picnic blanket and not answer them—no matter what!

Pencil drawing made by Liberation Prison Project student Dylan and gifted to LPP, November 2018. Image courtesy of LPP.

Since 2001 Liberation Prison Project (LPP), an FPMT project, and San Francisco, California, US tour company Himalayan High Treks have been working together to enable people to go on pilgrimage. Twenty-two pilgrimages have been offered so far, raising a grand total of nearly $182,000 for LPP. Ven. Thubten Chokyi, director of LPP, shares the story.

The Buddha advised his students that after his passing, pilgrimage should be made to the holy places to help purify previously accumulated negative karmas, even the five heinous actions.

Liberation Prison Project (LPP) has been partnering with Himalayan High Treks since 2001 to organize pilgrimages to Buddhist sites in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Borobudur, a ninth-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Indonesia. We have been blessed to have inspiring teachers leading the pilgrimages, including FPMT registered teachers Ven. Robina Courtin, Geshe Tenzin Zopa, Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi, Ven. Amy Miller, and Jon Landaw.

Following the pilgrimages, many participants join our team of volunteer Dharma mentors, writing to and visiting LPP students in prison. Many who go on the pilgrimages are already LPP Dharma friends who want to support LPP through the fundraising contribution. They have told us that going on pilgrimage was a transformative and powerful experience, and they are able to share that experience with the inmates they support.

Artwork celebrating Losar, year of the pig, by Liberation Prison Project student Raven Jones, gifted to LPP, February 2018. Image courtesy of LPP.

The nearly $182,000 raised from these pilgrimages has been used to provide free resources to our students in the US, subscriptions to Mandala magazine, copies of the Liberation Tibetan calendar, and the giving of refuge and bodhichitta vows. The funds have also been used to provide support to prison chaplaincy and Dharma students who mentor our students by correspondence.

LPP has provided around 20,000 resources to inmates, including FPMT study and practice materials. All of our students receive FPMT’s five-session Buddhism in a Nutshell course when they first contact us, as an introduction to the Dharma. Many prisoners are engaged in FPMT’s fourteen-module Discovering Buddhism study program, and one student is engaged in FPMT’s most advanced study program, the Masters Program, which consists of six years of study and a total of one year of retreat. Raven Jones, one of our students in the US, has already completed the Masters Program under the mentorship of Ven. Sangye Khadro.

In late 2018 one of our students in Australia took refuge and another plans to take refuge in 2019. It is so heart warming to see the ripening of the Dharma in such harsh and challenging environments. It takes great courage and determination.

When Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la) was in Australia in 2014, she offered refuge to one of our students, and many of the Education and Chaplaincy staff were delighted to join in the happy occasion. The student has since completed the first thirteen modules of Discovering Buddhism and has become the first prisoner to do a nyung nä retreat in prison. He said the only major obstacle was that he couldn’t leave the fresh fruit on his altar throughout.

Khadro-la after her first prison visit holding a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, created by a Liberation Prison Project student on the occasion of Khadro-la’s first visit to Australia, Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, April 2014. Photo by LPP visiting chaplain Libby Mowlam. When it was presented to her Khadro-la promised to offer it directly to His Holiness.

There are many similar inspiring stories of transformation in prison that have been shared with us by LPP coordinators in New Zealand, Italy, Mongolia, Mexico, France, and the UK, and LPP students in Asia, Africa, and South America.

We appreciate Himalayan High Treks staff, as well as all of the individuals who have offered their support over the years by joining or leading a pilgrimage organized by Himalayan High Treks that benefits LPP.

Thubten Kunkyab Study Group, an FPMT study group in Mexico City, Mexico, has organized a Buddhism for Young Adults group that began meeting in January 2019. Buddhism for Young Adults group coordinators Nancy Torres Lopez and Ricardo Mesta Esparza, young adults themselves, share the story.

The Buddhism for Young Adults group was born from a couple members of Thubten Kunkyab Study Group in Mexico City. With the arrival of His Eminence the 7th Kyabje Ling Rinpoche to Guadalajara in September 2018, we noticed that our teachers’ precious teachings were not reaching the younger members of the population, who are developing in environments and activities that can be hostile to gaining peace and mental stillness. Our generation has grown up in a context that incites the development of negative emotions and problems that affect us both internally and externally.

Buddhism for Young Adults group in meditation, Thubten Kunkyab, Mexico City, Mexico, February 2019. Photo by Ricardo Mesta Esparza.

Buddhism for Young Adults is a group that aspires to reach young adults between the ages of 20-35 who are interested in attending our monthly meetings to learn what the Buddhist psychology point of view has to say about contemporary social problems, and learn different tools to transform our minds.

Our long-term goal is to promote charitable practices both for the individual as well as for the community through love and compassion for all beings.

The meetings are guided by Geshe Lobsang Dawa, an FPMT registered geshe, who we are very lucky to have in Mexico City as a teacher.

We got so many young adults to come by, opening an exclusive space for them. And then we talked about problems that we are all concerned about in a way that appeals to lay people but from a Buddhist perspective. This has been quite interesting since it has awakened Dharma seeds in the minds of some of the young adults, who are now asking for introductory programs.

We also paid for advertisements on Instagram. We can see that there is a great interest in Dharma, but sometimes young people don’t know where to go and where they can receive teachings.

In our first session we learned about stress: the physical, emotional, and mental sickness that afflicts us in our daily lives. We saw that rather than learn how to manage it, we choose to avoid and ignore it.

The second session was about managing depression and anxiety—sicknesses that afflict a big portion of the population—and how we do not know how to deal with it.

The turnout has been great with over forty young adults attending the group, and even one young woman started attending our lamrim study group. Rejoice!

Venerable Amy Miller, an FPMT registered teacher, has been informally leading people to Lawudo in Nepal’s Solu Khumbu District since 1990. She shares about the October 5-22, 2018, trip she led for twenty-three people from around the world. This is a short excerpt from Ven. Amy Miller’s published online story, “An Adventurous Trip to Lawudo in Nepal.”

It was only a week before our journey to Lawudo, when my sister called me from England and mentioned how much she admired what I was undertaking—leading a group of twenty-three people up to a remote retreat center in Solu Khumbu District in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal.

When I hung up the phone, I realized I had been in denial about what we were planning to do. Of course the trip was well planned, thought-out, and supported, but when traveling to a high elevation in a remote area with incredibly challenging terrain, dire things can happen.

I swallowed my trepidation and forged ahead, landing in Nepal on September 28, 2018. I wanted to be rested and bright-eyed for the group’s arrival on October 5.

We converged at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery (Kopan Nunnery) for dinner. Our group came from Australia and Wales, from points all over the United States, from North and South America, and Europe, and they penetrated deep into my heart.

Within a week we were family, helping each other in a variety of ways: listening to each other’s coughs, passing around diarrhea remedies, tissues, and advice about the toilets. We shared laughs and compared our lifestyles that were incredibly varied. We were nurses and teachers; paramedics; mental health workers; yoga instructors; husbands and wives; mothers, fathers, and grandparents; nuns; aspiring yogis and yoginis; massage therapists; healers; retired civil rights workers; administrators; cleaners; and human beings who had an urge to explore and test the outer edges of the envelope, and reach this place called “Lawudo.”

Trip participants making offerings to a naga tree outside of Lukla, Nepal, October 2018. Photo by Ven. Amy Miller.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa, an FPMT touring teacher, was awarded the Global Peace Leadership and Excellence Award by World CSR (corporate social responsibility) Day organizers on the occasion of World CSR Congress’s eighth annual celebration of World CSR Day on February 18, 2019. The one-day World Peace Congress—held in conjunction with World CSR Congress—was held at hotel Taj Lands End in Mumbai, India. The mission of World Peace Congress is to bring together experts with solutions to major issues occurring in our personal lives, homes, schools, businesses, and communities.

World Peace Congress staff created a shortlist of candidates for the award. Final award decisions were made by a jury comprised of Dr. R. L. Bhatia, Founder of World CSR Day and World Sustainability; Dr. Saugata Mitra, Chief People Officer and Group Head HR, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd; Professor Indira Parikh, President of Antardisha, and India’s Iconic HR Leader; Dr. Arun Arora, Ex-President and CEO, The Economic Times, and Chairman, Edvance Pre-schools Pvt. Ltd; and Dr. C. M. Dwivedi, Group Chief Human Resource Officer, Fazlani Group of Companies; as well as juries located in each candidate’s geographic region.

On February 18, 2019—the eve of Chotrul Duchen and the completion of Monlam Chenmo—Geshe Tenzin Zopa was awarded the prestigious Global Peace Leadership and Excellence Award in Mumbai, India.

The World Peace Congress brought together citizens from over 130 countries to celebrate leaders who are building a better society and a more peaceful world. A global jury of leaders from the fields of sustainable development, education, and world peace chose Geshe Tenzin Zopa for the award in recognition of his leadership and contributions to society.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa was invited to give a presentation “Peace as a Purposeful Goal and Sustainable Peace Effort.” He spoke of the need for secular ethics to be taught in our educational institutions, our interconnectedness, the need to cherish others, universal responsibility, and the need to develop love and compassion. He said His Holiness the Dalai Lama can inspire us to see that individuals can resolve problems, and how we can all contribute to global peace.

If you were to ask me how I feel about this acknowledgment then I would answer with this: it is truly due to the blessing of my gurus and all the sentient beings’ immeasurable compassion and kindness towards me. When I got the invitation and information about this award, at first I thought it was a scam. I didn’t believe it right up until the booking of the flight, which was just a few weeks before I arrived in Mumbai from Sydney after my teaching tour.

In fact, until it was my turn to be called up to the stage I was still thinking, ‘I’m here for the conference only, not as a recipient of the award,’ because the people who went onto the stage for the awards were well-known great leaders of corporate social responsibility from around the world who have achieved great works, and I am not in that category at all.

Anyway, it was a very auspicious surprise. I was humbled to start the year knowing that in the larger non-Dharma community people are paying great attention, taking note of and appreciating one simple Buddhist monk, and are offering this award as acknowledgment, encouragement, and inspiration to work harder for the greater cause of peace and happiness of humanity to one’s best ability.

It was surprising and humbling to know that it still counted and was appreciated by many who love peace—as long as it is an effort for peace and harmony, even if it is coming from a nobody like me, who is no different from an ant.

This event made me realize that the work I have been acknowledged for has not been done yet. But I pray to do these acknowledged works of peace for the happiness of humanity—unconditionally—for the rest of my life to the best of my ability, as long as it is the cause for the peace and happiness of humanity and all living beings. Whatever has happened and whatever is going to happen is all due to the blessings of the guru Buddhas and all mother sentient beings.

So, I pray and make aspirations for my life as Shantideva said, ‘For as long as sentient beings remain, may I too remain to dispel their sufferings.’

I sincerely dedicate this award and any virtuous deeds in relation to this event for the perfect health, long life, and fulfillment of all holy aspirations of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and all the gurus. And also may it be the complete cause of temporary and ultimate happiness of all living beings.

Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB), an FPMT center in Soquel, California, US, partners with the nonprofit Road Scholar program to offer retreats at LMB. Founded as Elderhostel in the summer of 1975, Road Scholar began as a learning program conceived to combine not-for-credit classes with inexpensive lodging for older adults. This partnership is an example of two of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service: community service and revenue generation.

We started with two programs in 1996. When Murray Wright was the center director, someone suggested that Elderhostel would be a good match for LMB and a way to support the center. It offers programs that are beneficial and enhance people’s lives. So, LMB contacted the organization, who then came and checked out our facilities, looked at our program ideas, and a partnership was formed.

The coordinator at LMB comes up with ideas, presents it to Road Scholar, and Road Scholar handles the advertising and registration. I started working at LMB in 1999 as spiritual program coordinator (SPC). Elderhostel was then part of the spiritual program department. In 2000, the job was split off from SPC, and I became the Elderhostel coordinator. So this will be my twentieth year coordinating the Elderhostel/Road Scholar programs.

Q: How many Road Scholar retreats do you run in a year?

We have twelve to sixteen retreats in a year with several different themes. These days we are just running the three most popular themes, but we might be adding a new one next year. The current themes are Buddhist Insights into Living and Dying; Energy Massage and Qi Gong; Vegetarian Cuisine and Nutrition; Buddhist Thinking, Meditation and Qi Gong; and a Rejuvenation Retreat for Women. The Rejuvenation Retreats include meditation, qi gong, aromatherapy, and massage for self-care. In the longer version of the Rejuvenation Retreat we add herbs for vitality and yoga.

All the retreats include some extracurricular activities such as nature walks, music evenings, and a gompa tour. Sometimes we also have creating mandalas. The Rejuvenation Retreats for Women are four to five days. The co-ed programs are six days.

Q: How many people does it take to put on one Road Scholar retreat?

I do the administrative work and I’m the group leader. I have an assistant named Linda who helps with some of the administrative work and teaches one class. There are quite a few teachers: usually two meditation/Buddhism teachers, someone teaching qi gong (myself or another person), someone teaching massage, aromatherapy, yoga, nutrition, vegetarian cuisine, musicians, someone leads the nature walk, and more. For a recent six-day program, we had ten different teachers involved. Some of them just taught one class.

There are many topics and activities, sometimes including vegetarian cooking with our chefs, Stephanie and Mike. The teachers have great expertise in their field and are wonderful communicators. In addition to the Road Scholar faculty and administrators, the LMB staff provide a wonderful environment. LMB is all set up for housing overnight guests and serving delicious, fresh-cooked, vegetarian meals. We already have the whole hotel/conference center operation here. There is a supportive staff here providing care and comfort for the guests.

Mike Ditch, chef and cooking instructor for some of the Road Scholar retreats. Mike specializes in vegan and Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese cuisines, Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Losang Drimay.

Q: What do people get out of it?

It’s a very enriching program. People learn a lot, get lifestyle tools that they can bring home with them, and get leads on things that they might follow up on when they get home. It can be life changing. The social aspect is an important element. Some people come here on the heels of some sort of loss, grief, or other difficult life situation. Participants make new friendships that they continue after they leave. They enjoy meeting like-minded people who also enjoy learning new things. The typical Road Scholar participant is intelligent, open-minded, and engaged. Road Scholar programs are for people age forty and older, but people who are forty or older can bring along someone younger.

In the last retreat, most participants were from out-of-state. Sometimes it’s about half from California and half from elsewhere. In general, people feel relaxed here and like the environment. They like the spiritual, peaceful atmosphere and the beauty of the redwood forest and nature. They feel that they are in a very special place. We have beautiful grounds. The accommodations are rustic, simple, and clean.

Q: How does the Road Scholar program fit in with the overall mission of LMB and our organization?

I feel very inspired by Lama Yeshe’s vision for Universal Education and often think of Lama and this vision when running the retreats. I also hope if Lama Zopa Rinpoche were looking at this program, he would be happy that it gives a lot of benefit. Several years ago, Rinpoche expressed to me that the two most important things were that people feel compassion from me and that they have a chance to see the holy objects. Feeling warmth and compassion from the wonderful staff here is an important part of the experience for the guests.

Ven. Lobsang Konchok with a son of the previous Imam and Andrew, Hobart Mosque, West Hobart, Tasmania, March 2019. Photo courtesy of Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre.

On March 18, 2019, three days after the Christchurch, New Zealand, shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre, members of Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre, an FPMT center in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, visited their former home, Hobart Mosque in West Hobart, Tasmania. There, they greeted a son of the previous Imam and their old friend Andrew, a Hobart Mosque community member and full-time volunteer groundsman. Interfaith activities are one of FPMT’s five pillars of service. Ven. Lindy Mailhot, center director shares the story.

We visited the Hobart Mosque on March 18—offering freshly picked flowers from the gardens that surround the Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre (CTCT) gompa and extending our hearts, prayers, love, and care for our Muslim brothers and sisters on behalf of the CTCT Tibetan Buddhist community at this very tender time.

It was an especially moving experience for us to return and meet with our friends again at the Hobart Mosque. CTCT had enjoyed many years—some just part-time room rental, and then almost two-and-a-half years of full-time rental—of the eight-room Victorian house, which had been modified for use as a mosque. These modifications included beautiful religiously-themed stained-glass panels around the doorway. The Hobart Mosque community made their old mosque building available for rental after they built a bigger mosque on the same property in 2004.

We always shared a lovely harmony with the Hobart Mosque community. During our recent visit they told us how much they miss having our center community there with them since we relocated a couple of years ago due to our financial circumstances.

The Hobart Mosque is the venue where we welcomed the very first most precious, especially blessed and unforgettable two-day visit of Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and Geshe Tenzin Zopa to CTCT in August 2015.

In December 2018 a group of pilgrims organized by FPMT center Root Institute for Wisdom Culture in Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, traveled together to the Ajanta and Ellora Caves in Aurangabad District, Maharashtra, India, with Geshe Ngawang Rabga, Root Institute’s resident geshe. Trip leader Annie McGhee shares the story.

A group of nine of us left Root Institute early one morning to Delhi. It was very special to have Geshe Ngawang Rabga with us as part of our group of nine. He is extremely humble, knowledgeable, charismatic, gentle, warm, and incredibly kind. We spent the next day visiting the National Museum where a superb stupa holds relics of Shakyamuni Buddha. The museum also has many objects from the Dunhuang Caves of a Thousand Buddhas in Gansu Province, China.

We stayed two nights in Delhi, then after a short flight south to Aurangabad, we traveled by mini bus up to Ellora, where we stayed for several nights.

Recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983, the Ajanta Caves are some of the finest and most extensive surviving examples of ancient Indian art, architecture, and sculpture.

Only a few hours from the city of Aurangabad, twenty-nine immense caves are nestled in a huge gorge in the shape of a horseshoe. Dating from the second and first centuries B.C.E. to the fifth and sixth centuries C.E., the Ajanta Caves consist of viharas (monasteries) and chaitya (prayer halls) of different Buddhist traditions, which were carved into a 250 foot (76 meter) wall of rock.

We saw cave walls and ceilings adorned with paintings. Among the most interesting paintings are the Jataka tales, illustrating diverse stories relating to the previous incarnations of the Buddha as various bodhisattvas.

We did prayers and meditated within the quiet solitude of some of the caves. There was a palpable feeling that these were indeed very holy and blessed places.

The next day we woke early to go to the Ellora Caves. They became a UNESCO site in 1983 and extend over one mile (two kilometeres).

The cave monasteries and temples at Ellora were dug out of the vertical face of a cliff. It is one of the largest rock-cut monastery-temple cave complexes in the world, featuring Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monuments and artwork dating from 600 to 1,000 C.E. Each of the thirty-four excavated caves depict deities and mythology, and contain viharas and chaityas.

Twelve of the Ellora Caves are Buddhist, with one featuring a superb Maitreya statue. We sat quietly at that cave, doing practices and contemplating the greatness of these caves and what they would have been like in their day.

These magnificent caves—unique in the history of humankind, as well as the extraordinary artwork and statuary, and what they represent—remain etched on my mind.

Hayagriva Buddhist Centre, an FPMT center in Perth, Western Australia, offered a six-week Buddhist Summer School program during the Australian summer, from January 8-February 10, 2019, consisting of teachings, meditations, and workshops led by Australian visiting FPMT registered teachers Ven. Thubten Dondrup and Ven. Tenzin Tsapel. This was Ven. Tsapel’s first visit to the center. Center member Owen Cole shares the story.

Geshe Ngawang Sonam, Hayagriva Buddhist Centre’s resident geshe, was on holiday, many people had leave for the summer holiday with time on their hands, so it was an ideal time for a Buddhist Summer School.

Our center’s much loved former resident teacher, Ven. Dondrub, was in Perth for almost two weeks in January teaching from January 8-20, 2019, and Ven. Tsapel, who had never previously visited our center, came after him for a similar period, teaching from January 24-February 10.

Ven. Tenzin Tsapel has been ordained for 34 years, studied the Dharma at FPMT center Chenrezig Institute for 15 years, and taught at FPMT centers in a number of countries.

It didn’t matter that most students didn’t know her as Ven. Tsapel’s warmth and down-to-earth manner captured the hearts of many students. Her program had something for everyone, from an explanation of Buddhist prayers and prostrations to teachings on the three poisonous minds and a Vajra Yogini self-initiation.

Long-time student and former spiritual program coordinator Susan di Bona found great benefit from having teachings from a woman’s perspective. “We are of similar age so there is already a feeling of sisterhood. Ven. Tsapel’s stories about the Dharma used life experience to illustrate points; this came more easily from a female teacher,” Susan said.

One of our youngest students Zendra Giraudo said she found Ven. Tsapel accessible, and that she resonated with Ven. Tsapel more than other people. “Ven. Tsapel has a grounding presence which makes it easier to understand the teachings,” Zendra said.

Another relatively new student, Penni Sutton, said she benefited from the way Ven. Tsapel linked the three poisonous minds of anger, greed, and ignorance, and that she really connected with Ven. Tsapel. “What I like about FPMT is that there are so many teachers and you get a little bit more with every teaching you receive,” Penni said.

Long time student Ros Charron said, “I was totally captivated. It was as if someone had switched on a light in my mind not only through slightly differently wording phrases but by the explanations, which were succinct and clear.”

The community at Kopan Monastery, the FPMT monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, shares about the annual Losar (Tibetan New Year) rituals that took place at Kopan in 2019.

The Tibetan Losar tradition contains elements and values that we all share as human beings, and, similar to Western cultures, the New Year here means a fresh beginning. Losar rituals have many Buddhist elements, but Losar is primarily a secular event with its own flavor.

At all the major monasteries, special ceremonies called Gyutor are performed on the last day of the year. The purpose of these ceremonies is to move into the new year with a clean slate after having purified the negativities of the past year.

At Kopan Monastery, the purification ceremonies start with an extensive puja by the tantric monks in which vast amounts of offerings are made to the protectors. A special torma symbolizing Kalarupa is consecrated, which will later be offered to the fire. In the puja, extensive offerings are made, and all the protectors of the teachings of the Buddha are beseeched to fulfill the pledges they made in the past.

The rituals continue with the assembly of the tantric monks in the Kopan Monastery courtyard, with the torma placed in the middle. The ritual master first performs an extensive tea offering to the protectors in which they are requested to remove all hindrances and obstacles. The tea offering is repeated four times, with the first one dedicated to the Lama, the second one to the Deity, the third one to all enlightened protectors, and the fourth to the worldly protectors and the landlords.

Following this, the torma is carried in a procession with music and chanting of prayers to a nearby field where a straw hut has been erected. The torma is then thrown into the burning straw hut, symbolically destroying all negativities and causes of negativities, the grasping and self-cherishing mind. Prayers are made for the removal of all obstacles to the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, and for the teachings to continue for a long time.

Extensive dedications are made throughout the rituals. All FPMT centers, projects, services, and students are always included in the prayers to remove all obstacles and to have the right conditions to fulfill all the wishes of all the lamas, and in particular the wishes of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

The next day is Losar, the New Year’s day, which is welcomed in the monasteries with a Palden Lhamo puja in the early morning, followed by a celebration of Guru Puja with extensive tsog offering at 8 a.m. This being the main puja of the New Year, it goes on until midday.

Losar is mostly celebrated over three days.

The first day is dedicated to the lamas. This is when lay people go to the monasteries to make offerings and visit their teachers to receive a blessing string. The monasteries celebrate this day as the first day of the Fifteen Days of Miracles. At Kopan Monastery this is also the anniversary of Lama Yeshe’s passing.

The second day is dedicated to the king or leader of the country. The third day is then dedicated to the family.

FPMT Sangha and students gathered together at the Kickstart Community Arts Centre in New Town, Tasmania, in November 2018 to make 100,000 tsog offerings to Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava. This was the second year in a row that the FPMT Australia National Office organized and FPMT center Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre, Tasmania, co-hosted a Guru bumtsog. They were assisted in the months leading up to and during the event by students and executive committee members from Logsang Dragpa Centre, the FPMT center in Selangor, Malaysia. This created a warm, FPMT global family feeling at the four-day event. FPMT center Vajrayana Institute student Shannon Murphy shares the story.

The event honored Guru Rinpoche an 8th-century Buddhist master from India who played an essential role in the flourishing of Buddhism in Tibet. He represents an embodiment of the Dharma lineage, so that the ritual of making offerings to Guru Rinpoche was an offering to all our precious teachers, notably His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and an offering to the Buddha potential within every being.

We kept in mind all those who suffer in the cycles of life, death, and the bardo, in all realms of existence. With this expansive view, the aspiration was to make 100,000 tsog offerings and 100,000 mantra recitations during our four days together!

Geshe Tenzin Zopa led the prayers and mantras, inspiring us with heart-felt motivations and rotating chant tunes with support from Geshe Thubten Rabten. Geshe Tenzin Zopa and Ven. Lozang Sherab—who sometimes assists at FPMT center Langri Tangpa Centre—offered music on the big brass cymbals. Ven. Thubten Chokyi and Ven. Lozang Thubten from FPMT center Chenrezig Institute offered music on the drums.

It created a powerful practice that, once we got our tongues around the Tibetan, could really carry the mind into an expansive offering. The practice sessions were solid blocks of mantra recitation that lasted for a couple of hours each, five sessions a day.

To refresh us between sessions, we were generously catered for by the Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre community, with a variety of hot drinks, delicious pastries, and freshly prepared breakfasts and lunches.

Participants caught up with old friends and met new ones. Some took time to do personal meditation or to visit the exhibition of holy artworks curated in the art center by artist Martin Watson Walker.

Ven. Tenzin Sherab, Mary Richards, and Martin Walker-Watson making offerings to the Buddha at the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

A large Buddha Shakyamuni, one of the preliminary sculptures made for the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace, was positioned in the heart of the garden for guests to circumambulate and make light, incense, water bowl, and Sur offerings to, while stupas, thangkas, relics, and extensive offerings were arranged in the hall.

Martin oversaw the gilding of the beautiful Buddha so that participants could make offerings of gold leaf. Placed around the centerpiece were hundreds of water bowls, which gradually filled with multicolored blossoms. Incense billowed and candles flickered. When the rain came down the monks and nuns led the congregation under umbrellas to offer Sur prayers before the dusk settled.

One participant commented that for years he had kept getting blocked in his study of Dharma. He found incorporating prayer and mantra into his practice has been instrumental to opening his mind.

When we put all the busy demands of life aside and focus on our intention to create the causes for the elimination of all suffering, that all beings receive all the conducive conditions that will lead to an enlightened state, what an incredible practice of compassion it becomes! All the more inspiring to do it in a group setting where there where more than one hundred people were sharing a space and an intention to put good energy out into the world.

Students participating in the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

Superficial observation of the sense world might lead you to believe that people’s problems are different, but if you check more deeply, you will see that fundamentally, they are the same. What makes people’s problems appear unique is their different interpretation of their experiences.